Terry Gross

Journalist James Fallows is National Correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, a regular commentator on NPR, and a licensed pilot. In his new book Free Flight: From Airline Hell to a New Age of Travel he looks into the technological innovations which will change airline travel. For instance, smaller jet planes will ferry passengers from local airports, bypassing the crowded international airports. Fallows is also the author of Breaking the News: How the Media Undermine American Democracy.

Laurie Pepper is the wife of the late alto saxophonist Art Pepper, who died in 1982 and was considered to be the greatest alto saxophonist of the post-Charlie Parker generation. Laurie Pepper has just produced a box-set compilation of Art Pepper's music, called Art Pepper: The Hollywood All-Star Sessions. Terry talked with Pepper on the occasion of the updated version of her husband's autobiography, Straight Life which he wrote with the help of Laurie.

Writer Joyce Johnson talks about her relationship to Beat icon Jack Kerouac, and her book, Door Wide Open: A Beat Love Affair in Letters which is now out in paperback. In 1957, Johnson started a relationship with the then little-known writer Kerouac. Nine months later, Kerouacs Beat classic On the Road was published. Johnson will talk about her two-year, tumultuous love affair with Kerouac, and how the publication of On the Road changed Kerouac. Door Wide Open contains many letters sent to Johnson by Kerouac.